


sweet girls

by Astoria



Series: age of innocence [1]
Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Alternate Universe - Victorian, Boarding School, F/F, a bit of age difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 20:54:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6625888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astoria/pseuds/Astoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"In class they would hold hands under the desk, in the library they would exchange murmurs or written words, at night they would talk for hours and sometimes one of them would join the other in bed. "</p><p>Or it is 1879, an all-girls boarding school and Therese meets Carol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sweet girls

 

April, 02. 1879

 

_Our father who art in heaven…_

 

Therese's knees were digging into the wooden floor and she was biting on her thumbs. She repeated the prayer in her mind and when she heard heavy footsteps close to the door, she clasped her hands quickly and closed her eyes. She did not want to receive Ms. Florence’s ire if she was not praying correctly. That wooden stick was not forgiving for any finger that made its acquaintance according to all the other girls. Therese was inclined to believe them.

 

After all she was new here, in Ashford School. The girls seemed nice enough and the conditions were rather like everything she knew of boarding schools. Suspicious food, dubious mould traces and tyrannical educators.

 

_Mary full of grace…_

 

The night was warm and Therese wanted anything but go to sleep at eight thirty. She opened one eye discreetly to peek at the other girls. She surely hoped to make friends fast. A few girls were giggling together, while some of them were praying like Therese. Another girl was alone sitting on her bed, reading and looking out of place among the other childish girls. Therese was struck and remembered rather guiltily the time she had been in Italy with her aunt and they had visited a museum. The nude statues, their movements, their grace, their faces full of emotion even set in marble, all of that reminded her of the girl in front of her. Guiltily, yes, guiltily because she had remembered their bodies first.

 

_Pray for us sinners…_

 

She closed her eyes again and kept on praying.

 

 

April, 05. 1879

 

“Carol? Oh she does not speak to us mere mortals.” Danielle explained.

 

“What do you mean?” Therese asked again, not understanding, or fearing to understand.

 

“You see she has been here for years. Except for Abigail she does not speak to anyone.” Danielle took on a tone fit for confidences. “People say she is not right in the head you know?”

 

Therese did not know at all. She moved her head negatively.

 

“Listen” Genevieve stepped in. Therese had not realized it was a public conversation but she was not going to complain if she received more explanation. “She had two suitors. Those very same men gave her up before the wedding, a few months apart. She was bound to lose her mind a bit, don't you agree?”

 

Therese moved her head again, this time to signify her understanding or agreement. Of course anybody would. It was comprehensible, it absolutely was. Yet something irked her. Perhaps it was to talk about her in such a fashion, behind her back so she could not retort and defend herself. Maybe it was also because Therese could not fathom the simple idea of these foolish boys who had refused to marry her.

 

They were at a boarding school, here to get an education to be good wives, or for the time being, being less of a burden to their parents. Therese knew that these girls' hopes were to find a suitable husband. These girls and her. Of course. The only problem was that Therese was a penniless orphan, offered an education by her aunt merely out of duty to her dead sister. The question was not whether she liked her aunt or not, she did like her aunt, as much as one could love a stranger.

 

The question was, what did she have to offer in marriage? Her stomach creaking in anxiety often answered her: not a thing.

 

May, 02. 1879

 

Latin was slowly but surely killing her and she took the decision that if she could not comprehend every word that Virgil wrote in his _Eclogues_ _,_ well Therese was still going to live a happy life. But then she thought about Ms. Florence the governess and Mr. Tucker the director and she went back to work. If not Latin then Greek. Hesiod was waiting on the desk in the library she had called hers several times with how much she used it, she sort of wanted to carve her initials in the weathered mahogany for the simple reason of having something that was completely hers.

 

She started to translate the passage about the creation of woman. Pandora was made out of clay by the goddesses and looked like them, beautiful and divine. But Zeus added something: lies and perversion and deceit in the woman's head as a punishment for Prometheus and the whole human race. Her pen stopped and her mind was sent reeling. Was it what these dignified men thought of women? An empty vase only filled with immoral qualities? She could not reconcile that with her own vision and experience of girls, especially the ones here. Assuredly they liked to gossip like old country women and they liked to play pranks a bit too much to her taste but she also remembered in her short month at Ashford the time when she lost her schoolbook and all the girls in the dormitory had helped her find it, or when the bread she had received was so green even insects would not want to touch it and some of the girls shared their own ration with her.

 

She sighed so many times at the ridiculousness of this writer that other girls in the library shushed her one too many times and she went out.

 

It was a warm Sunday and Therese had started to be accustomed to the little bit of river they had in this region. The water was quite dense and not always pretty, but it was always so agreable to swim. It was a few kilometres away from the school, that is to say, 'out of the authorized boundaries set up by the school and any girl found beyond those lines would be severely punished'. She recited mentally before picking up her pace.

 

When she got there, she was sweaty from her walk and her boots hurt her poor feet. She took them off immediately and then set up to work on her dress. She had forgone the dreaded corset as it was not a school day, and she thanked her former self at how easier it would be to remove all her clothes and jump quickly in the water. She was going to do all that when she saw a head out of the water.

 

She stopped dead in her tracks. She saw that it was Carol, swimming softly in the water. Her usually light and wavy hair was dark and stuck on the back of her head. Her face wet and shining in the weak sun seemed surreal, out of the imagination of one of those lyrical poets. Compared to this vision Therese was laughable: perched on one leg trying to remove one of her boot, while her other naked foot was buried in mud, where the lake had overflown, resembling a silly farm girl. Despite all this, Carol smiled and her teeth were white and the undulating water reflected itself on them.

 

“Oh I-I was not aware other people from the school were using this lake. I will go, I am sorry.” Therese stumbled upon her words and as soon as she had finished her sentence she tumbled quite literally too. Her leg still in the air making her lose any balance she could have had.

 

Yet Carol only smiled more, not in a mocking way at all, and started to walk toward her out of the water. At this instant Therese, who had berated herself a few seconds ago for her lack of grace, was suddenly glad to be already sitting down for she would have with certainty fallen to her knees before this sight. Carol was not wearing the usual bathing suits one had seen everywhere covering the whole body and complimented with Turkish pants, no, she was wearing a sheer white long sort of nightgown, and nothing under it. The flimsy, almost non-existent cloth was clinging to every part of her body like a second skin.

 

Now Therese had already seen naked girls, girls of her age, girls like her, underdeveloped and childlike, when they had to shower or change in front of each other. But she had never seen a woman, and Carol was a woman. She was among the oldest girls of the boarding school and while that showed in her more reserved behaviour, her body was also the witness of maturity. She was tall and lithe. Her breasts, Therese blushed with envy and a pleasure of the aesthetics, were full and round. The wet light cloth rubbing against her chest, only making her dark nipples peak out even more. Therese's own chest was very small, which was something she appreciated whenever she had to wear a corset or tighter clothes. Carol's stomach was flat and even seemed powerful, the muscles moving with her steps in a sensual dance like Salome and her seven veils. Therese's own stomach was soft and a bit pudgy from her gourmandise. Then… Down there, her modesty was hidden by hair and Therese was happy to see she was exactly like her at least in one aspect.

 

Slowly, tantalizingly, finally Carol was almost out of the water, and Therese settled once again for another mythical image: _The Birth of Venus._ It made perfect sense. Therese felt the force of her intrusion even more with this comparison but she did not even attempt to rise for her mind was occupied elsewhere.

 

Strangely Carol was not angry or demanding that she leaves this instant. No, she simply went behind Therese's back, knelt in the mud and put her wet, cold hand on her shoulder.

 

“Let me?” She asked in that deep voice of hers. Therese realized it was the first time they were alone together and that Carol was talking to her directly. They were sleeping in the same room and going to some of the same classes so they were bound to interact with each other but they never did so intimately.

 

Therese understood the request and could only nod dumbly, staring out at the water while Carol's delicate hands were untying the laces at the back of her dress. It was not like she did not know how to do it herself but how could she refuse? She was starstruck by the older girl. She felt the laces slither on her back and finally she felt the kiss of the sun and a warm breath on her naked back. That seemed to surprise Carol who gasped, Therese felt the immediate need to justify her lack of undergarments. “I knew I was going to swim and as I am always alone I did not deem it necessary to pack anything superfluous.”

 

“You swim completely nude?” Carol laughed, it was breezy and like honey. “Aren't you scared that one of the village boys will catch you?”

 

Therese thought that Carol's own choice at hiding her modesty was not much better but she only said: “Nothing exceptional to observe anyway.”

 

Carol's hand returned to her naked shoulder and pushed at the cloth. “Let me be the judge of that.”

 

That sentence alone petrified Therese because she had already made the comparisons between their two bodies and it was not a false humility that had pushed her to say that but a genuine feeling. Yet she did not stop Carol from undressing her.

 

“You are trembling.” The delicious girl remarked upon.

 

“Your hands are cold.” Therese deflected. She knew what was happening with her, she knew it. That was the same reason she had moved from her former barding school. It was the same reason that pushed her aunt to see her as little as possible.

 

She stood up and her untied dress pooled at her feet. She was as naked as the day she was born and Carol was looking at her like Therese had looked at her earlier. To shake off this whole situation she ran and jumped in the cool water. When she resurfaced, Carol had obviously been been splashed by her dive. The wonder in her face had been replaced by amusement and a mischievous smile. She jumped too following Therese and splashing her in retaliation. They played like kids, like the school girls they were, for a long time.

 

The sun was starting to dim and they had to go back to Ashford soon. Therese knew what they faced if they disobeyed but even that horrible prospect could not motivate her to leave Carol's side. After they had escaped the cooling water they had shared the victuals Carol had brought in prevision of her day out: red fruit that had stained their teeth and lips, and Therese because she was clumsy, had dropped a few drops on her naked breast and her thigh. When they were done eating Therese put her dress back on with the help of Carol who insisted on lacing it again. Also they had talked, a lot, for hours, getting closer and closer with the sun setting down and the confidences shared.

 

“My marriage?”Carol had laughed then. “Oh my dear Therese, rumours do travel fast.”

 

Therese blushed in shame. “I am sorry, I did not mean to pry and I certainly did not wish to cause you any harm by talking about you.”

 

“Do not fret. That only means you do talk about me. I am flattered.”

 

“Oh.” Therese blushed even harder if that was possible. “I suppose.”

 

Carol seemed to take pity upon her. “So you've heard of my many suitors. What were their names, do tell me? Alistair Mc Rich? William Van Der Smile?”

 

Therese's eyes went wide and she did not know whether to laugh or hide her face because surely Carol was mocking her. “No names were involved in the story.”

 

“Just as well. To be honest with you I am the instigator of that foolish gossip. Yes I know, I know.” Carol's hands went up in the air as if to placate her. “I am eighteen of age, I should be married by now. What are you, sixteen?”

 

“Fifteen.”

 

“Ah even younger. I am barely older than you and yet your position must be one of bliss . Allowed to be a child for a bit longer. My parents are fed up with me.”

 

“I do not understand how someone like you can still be unmarried.”

 

“I do not wish to be. Or at least not now. I want to see the world, travel, fall in love. I have ambition, you know? But I don't think that ambition will ever see light.”

 

Therese wanted to cry so much instantly, suddenly, violently. Carol had repeated her own desires about everything in life and everything about them screamed hopelessness. She took one of Carol's hand and kissed her knuckles. In understanding, in friendship.

 

Soon after they went back to school, laughing and holding hands. How insane was it to think that a few hours ago they were not even talking!

They parted at the entrance as to not attract the attention of anyone that might tell on them and their escapade. Therese had became good at this and yet her head was not in the right place, it was in the clouds, still in that sunny afternoon and Ms. Florence and her wooden stick caught her. She saw her still wet hair, tangled with leaves and mud, her rumpled dress and drew her conclusions.

 

“Your fingers!” She screamed and Therese obliged. She hit the tips of her fingers and Therese bit her lips very hard to not give her any satisfaction in the act. But that only served to enrage her and she spanked her with the same stick. This time Therese was so surprised that she let out a screech that made a few heads pop out of the dormitories curiously. Chastised enough, Therese swallowed her pride and went to go clean up. When she walked back in in the dormitory to sleep, she saw Carol looking at her and she managed a smile of reassurance. At least Carol had been safe.

 

The lights went off and Therese was forced to sleep on her stomach because of the redness and pain in her buttocks. That Ms. Florence, how she abhorred her! Her eyes were slowly closing, her mind being soothed by ideas of revenge, when she noticed that Danielle was not in the bed beside her, but Carol was. She almost jumped back in surprise. Carol smiled a secret smile and Therese answered the same way. She extended her arm and Therese did too, not seeing what she wanted to do. Carol grabbed Therese's hand and kissed the tips that had been mistreated a few moments before. Her warm breath tickled her skin. “Sorry, little angel.”

 

She felt fire from there to her toes. Tingles in her hand, in her whole arm, in her scalp.

A few moments later the first snores could be heard in the room and Carol's eyes were closed and her mouth slightly open with sleep. Therese had not moved her extended arm and could not stop staring at her. Curse this girl! Curse everything! She expected the Devil to come up and take her with Him because surely she was going to Hell. Her mind had wandered to a dark, forbidden place, like, what if Carol had kept going and kissed all the regions of her body that had suffered from the hands of Ms. Florence?

 

This mere thought made her blush and hot all over. She brought the fingers Carol had kissed and kissed them in turn. She swore she could feel the lingers of the other girl's lips but that was her imagination. She moved those marked fingers down her chest but did not pause and arrived between her thighs. Shamefully she rolled up her long night gown with her other hand, and started touching herself. She was going to Hell, her dead parents must have been turning in their graves and her aunt, if she ever learnt about it, would whip her. And yet, and yet her small fingers found extreme pleasure immediately. She did not know what she was touching nor did she want to know but God forgive her she felt a fire in her loin. But that was not enough, simply not enough. She did something even more reprehensible: she looked over at Carol in the bed next to her.

 

The motivation of the image was overwhelming and her wrist, her fingers moved actively. She let out little moans of sheer enjoyment and she tried, so hard, to shut up but it was only the second time she was trying to do anything of the like and her inexperience shook her. She moved her hips down then up and moved so much the blanket covering her fell and when she went to retrieve it on the floor she saw Carol's eyes open. She froze midway and honestly did not know what to do. There was no mistaking what she had been doing, except for someone very naive, Carol was not one of them.

 

She got back in her bed still looking at Carol. None of them had even blinked. It was insane and she did not know what took over her but she started to touch herself again. Carol visibly gasped but did not turn away in horror or wake all the other girls to mock the deviant girl. No, and if Therese's eyes did not deceive her through the haze of pleasure, shame and adrenaline she saw Carol's hand move under the covers also. The thought was thrilling more than anything else she had ever felt in her short life. She knew nothing would compare to those hungry eyes watching her like a hawk, those pink half open lips, breathing loudly and harshly. She would remember this vision forever she knew it. And her fingers, her dear fingers! She saw stars, she saw everything the Universe had to offer, and more importantly she saw Carol devouring her.

 

Black invaded her sight, the tingles from earlier came back tenfold and she was washed away by a hot and cold ocean. She drowned in the feeling, she did not feel her limbs any more nor did she wish to. A cloud was taking her away, back to that afternoon, the birds chirping in the sky, the only witnesses of Carol and Therese. She came back slowly, so slowly, the first thing she did was to open her eyes and look in the direction of her muse. She smiled at the similar state she was in, all breathy and blushing from the roots of her blond hair. Carol smiled back, a lazy and satisfied smile.

 

May, 22. 1879

 

They went back to the lake every weekends and the week days they were inseparable. If someone wanted to speak with Therese they had to find Carol first and so on. She loved that proximity, she never had such a dear close friend and she cherished the moments they had together. But of course after this night they could not remain impassible in each other's company.

In class they would hold hands under the desk, in the library they would exchange murmurs or written words, at night they would talk for hours and sometimes one of them would join the other in bed. The trick for the last one was to wake up before anyone stirred. It worked well for them and Therese could not be happier. She dared say in her own head that she loved Carol, the best of friends.

 

This Sunday was not a sunny one and some drops even fell on them. This weather made Therese surly for the entire morning for she was certain their escapade was going to be cancelled. Carol was not so easily discouraged though and they walked there like usually. It had became their place, their hidden haven.

 

Therese was lying down on the grass while Carol was swimming gracefully. They were both naked and their bodies flushed with their walk and their feelings of watching each other. Therese did not think she would ever tire of seeing Carol naked, or not. The thought scared her, because wasn't this what marriage was all about? Waking up next to your beloved, spending every minutes with them and miss them even when they are here? No, no, she ought to stop thinking about hurtful subjects.

She was starting to fall asleep when a few drops of ice cold rain hit her. She yelped and sat up and Carol laughed heartily, mocking her.

 

“Therese it's only water!”

 

“Easy for you to say you are already deep in water. I think we should go back, unless you want to catch pneumonia or worse?”

 

Carol tutted infuriatingly. “But don't you wish to taste my _cunt_?”

 

Therese could not answer, she only closed her legs, rubbing one against the other. That word, that word! Every time Carol used it Therese realised what a child she was. But she learned fast, do not take that away from her. “Of course Carol, you know I love to taste and smell you. Your cunt is my favourite dessert.”

 

Carol's reaction was worth every prayer Therese would have to say tonight. She blushed, and laughed again, her eyes travelling her body. She was such a happy girl, but she always had that melancholy around her. Therese knew she was the same and she also knew that this, there, between them kept the sadness away.

 

She walked up to her, a recreation of the first time she saw her out of that lake. Now she was naked and just as beautiful. She took the last steps that separated them and knelt in-between Therese's legs. Carol kissed her sweetly on the lips, a tingling touch, always so brand new and exciting. Her skin was so soft Therese could not help her wandering hands, gently moving from a dark nipple to an adorable navel. Her nails caught up on some part of the skin and Carol reciprocated everything. They were always acting like brides on their wedding night, moaning and mewling at every touch. But they swallowed each other's noises with their lips pressed against other lips or other part of sweet skin.

 

“Wait Therese I want to try something. You remember the book that circulated between the girls?”

 

“I never had the chance to leaf through it before Mr. Tucker got wind of it and banned it for ten generations.”

 

“Yes, well, I did. Let's say it was French and it taught everyone a few tricks.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Let me show you.” Carol said before putting her long blond hair on one side. She kissed her and Therese thought that this was not very new but welcome nonetheless. Until she felt something wet, and warm against her lips: Carol's tongue! The sensation was intoxicating and yet she could not help but giggle a bit.

 

“What? You don't like it?” Carol sounded disappointed.

 

“No! I do, I do!” She amended while calming down. “Do it again please?”

 

“At your service mademoiselle.”

 

They tongues met and slid against each other. Therese could taste Carol's saliva, and even though they had gone further, had done other things, this felt so intimate. Their faces were stuck together, their noses bumping, Carol's hair titillating her chest from where she was perched above Therese. It was intense and good and Carol tasted so good. She was rendered incoherent, Carol took immense pleasure in it.

 

“I knew you would love it. Now we've tried that I think I should put my tongue to better use, don't you think?”

 

“Oh God Carol! You are outrageous.”

 

“Am I? You are the one taking the Lord's name in vain.”

 

“Don't mock me! The Lord does not care about my swearing when you are making Him blush with everything you say.”

 

“He'd better close his eyes now.” Carol smirked before plunging her head down. Therese sighed in pleasure and let everything around her fade. The grass beneath her back, the birds, the rain, the lake… nothing existed but Carol and her nimble tongue.

 

Her soft hair had dried and was caressing her sensitive area. She acted like she was hungry for her, eating, drinking from her. Her sensitive skin was on fire and Carol was adding to it making it a wildfire, inextinguishable and ravaging. She was licking at her… at her, well down there, between her legs. At her cunt! She said it and she was not killed on the spot, only dying a little with the bliss inside her. Carol was unforgiving, going in, down on the sides. The rain was falling down on them, almost sizzling on their heated skin. Therese's teeth were chattering and goosebumps covered her whole body. Yet she only saw that rain as a thousand little kisses, sharpening all her sensations.

 

Then Carol went back up. She bit down on the insides of her thighs and licked away at the rain and sweat. “My mouth is tired.” She dared to pout.

 

Therese sat up and kissed her. She tasted herself and she throbbed at the thought. “Use your fingers.”

 

“You are so very selfish.” She retorted while putting two fingers in her mouth to wet them. “Yet I am passionate with you. You witch.”

 

They smiled at each other up until Carol's fingers entered Therese and all hell broke loose. She cried out and kissed Carol, Carol's cheeks, Carol's shoulders everything she could reach while being split in two. Her tight hole down there was opening up more and more under the other girl's ministrations, and Therese saw her release come at each move of these slim fingers. Therese moved her own hand and touched the beginning of her sex where everything was so much more powerful, real and absolutely intense.

 

With her other hand she grasped at Carol's breasts, twisting the nipples one way and another, rubbing them, scraping them with her nails, the rain helping making her body slippery and smooth. Therese, while still touching herself and while Carol was still entering her, brought her hand to Carol's cunt. She knew her pleasure made her clumsy, like whenever Carol hit a particular place or her own hand made an electric shock in her nether regions, she would buckle and whine and cry out losing any focus she could have had. Yet she persevered and touched Carol, generous, beautiful Carol. She felt the wiry, harsh hair on her fingers and rubbed them a bit, touching it made everything so real: she was here, they were here.

 

She descended her fingers to find hot, choking hot, wet pink skin. She moved from the small bundle, circled it, and Carol moaned. She poked at the extended skin, pulling at it, and Carol whined. Then she gathered the wetness everywhere and used it to enter Carol like she had done to her. The sounds, the unholy sounds that came out of this delicate throat, Therese would remember them forever in her mind. Her fingers found velvety skin and she kept going and moving, inside and out.

They kissed, a touch of tongue here and there. Then Carol said in her husky voice: “I love you.”

 

She did not see stars, she saw the face of God. She kept her eyes open and looked directly at the sky, challenging anyone, anything, the universe to take that from her or to top what she felt with anything else.

 

 

Epilogue.

 

One day, without saying anything, Carol left the boarding school. It was not rare that girls left, especially at this age to get married, but Therese could not reconcile that with her Carol. She remained mute, almost aphasic, and she did not leave her bed for several days even under the threats of many wooden sticks. She just could not fight this coat of hopelessness and depression that surrounded her. She was expelled from the school and her aunt had to take her back, sighing and cursing the day she was born. Therese remained in the same state for several months until her aunt told her she had hired a governess, and that her behaviour was to change if she did not want to find herself without a roof.

 

She was still in her bed, unwashed and sad when someone knocked at her door. She did not answer as usual and the door opened.

 

“Therese, my dear Therese, I am so sorry.” Carol's voice boomed in the small room and Therese started crying without being able to stop. She was here, as beautiful as ever, her blond wavy hair a bit longer, her liquid blue eyes a bit sadder, her magnificent face a bit wiser. They embraced and cried for a long time, just holding on each other. Finally when the sobs subsided they spoke. Therese did not release Carol's hand.

 

“I was so foolish! Thinking this could not keep going, that a heartbreak was bound to happen like Damocles's sword above our heads. But I am the one who provoked it.”

 

“Stay with me, please. I could not take another shock.”

 

“I am not going anywhere. Well actually I am.” At that Therese had tightened her hold on Carol's hand. “My darling! I am going with you if you wish to follow me.”

 

“I do not understand.”

 

“I am your governess now. Isn't this laughable? I think your aunt hired me too fast out of desperation.”

 

“Oh you are going to live in the house with me?” Therese smiled, ecstatically, wonderfully for the first time in many months.

 

“I have a better idea. Pack your bags, what do you think of Paris? Or Switzerland? Italy?”

 

“Wherever you want, I will follow you.”

 

The kiss they shared was almost as sweet as the ones they had in all the capitals of Europe.


End file.
